


John Shepard's Reach And Flexibility

by Inkwell



Series: Gayliens AU [1]
Category: Mass Effect Trilogy
Genre: Alien Romance, Gayliens AU, M/M, Teratophilia, Xenobiology, Xenophilia
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-31
Updated: 2020-12-31
Packaged: 2021-03-10 22:14:36
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,145
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28454439
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Inkwell/pseuds/Inkwell
Summary: What if M!Shep got to have a "reach and flexibility" moment with Garrus as well? Gayliens AU, where the alien crewmates are gay or bi and into Male Shepard.
Relationships: Male Shepard/Garrus Vakarian
Series: Gayliens AU [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2084160
Comments: 4
Kudos: 24





	John Shepard's Reach And Flexibility

**Author's Note:**

> This story takes place directly after Shepard has had the "she had reach, I had flexibility" dialogue with Garrus, where FemShep gets invited to spend the night with him but M!Shep doesn't.

There we sat, in the captain’s quarters of what had become my home, the Normandy SR-2. A human and a Turian. Garrus Vakarian and John Shepard. Garrus was fidgeting with a part of his armour, the wrist-guard, fiddling with some sort of clasp. I decided to break the silence. 

“So… Garrus, what's on your mind?”

“Oh, it's just that… I feel happy and honoured to be— that— that you want me here with you.”   
He stretched his legs slightly, clearly not entirely comfortable sitting on a bed made for a human body. 

“Oh, Garrus, of course I want you here with me.” I reached out to hold his hand. Sometimes he could be so awkward, it was like he’d built up some wall around himself and didn't know how to tear it down. Just like myself, I suppose, not knowing when to quit the job, not knowing how to act like a civvie anymore. His palm felt rough but warm against my hand. My heartbeat quickened just from this, from holding his hand in mine, feeling his warmth and the rough scaly skin. What was I, a teenager? 

“I like this. You know, I don't think I've ever held hands with a human before. Your hands are so soft.” His mandibles quivered slightly in that Turian smile that had taken me a long time to learn how to read. Of course, the scar on his face made reading him a bit tougher than other Turians. Sometimes I wanted to reach out and touch that scar, see how it felt under my fingers, stroke it gently so he’d know that I cared about him even though he had that big now-healed wound on his face. 

Then I did something impulsive. Stupid. I raised our joined hands and placed a kiss on the back of his. 

“Oh, Shepard, I didn't know…” He shifted, his voice sounding almost breathless. Damn it. I knew I shouldn't have done it.

“I'm sorry, I didn't mean to make you uncomfortable”, I began, knowing full and well that I wouldn't be able to stop talking once I'd started. “It's just, you know, I care about you a lot and…” And just like clockwork, the blush crept up my cheeks, exactly what I needed right now. “I mean, I wouldn't mind being more, uh… Physical with you.” The hero Shepard, able to stare down a Threshermaw, blushing and stammering like a fool. 

“Oh. I see. Well, for what it's worth, the feeling’s mutual.” He didn't seem offended. His mandibles moved again in that Turian smile, showing the edges of his sharp teeth. Then he raised my hand to his face and did something with his mouth; it felt like a mild pinch or a nibble. “A kiss for a kiss, hmm?”

Warmth filled my entire body, a surge of affection for him. I reached over and kissed his unscarred cheek, or rather the top of his mandible, where a cheek would have been on a human. He made an appreciative humming noise in response, and then kissed me back in the same spot. Again, his kiss felt like a slight nibble. It shouldn't have been pleasurable, but it sent a shiver up my spine. 

“So, Shepard…” Garrus began, his tone of voice suggesting a smile. “Would you like to get out of your armour?”

I wore my armour during my off-duty hours on the Normandy as well; it had become second nature for me, almost like a second skin. And Garrus was still wearing that blue dented old thing. I'd asked him once, when we passed by a vendor on Omega, if he’d like a new suit of armour, but he’d said that the dents and torn-up metal added character to it. Maybe it had been a dumb thing to ask. If I had survived a rocket to the face, I guess I wanted something to show for it and brag about too. 

“Well, sure… But only if you get out of yours too.” The blush crept up my cheeks again. Damn it.

“You’ve got yourself a deal, Commander”, Garrus replied with a slight purr to his voice that made my heart flutter. He moved away from me and began removing parts of his armour. I watched as he started with his bracers, revealing a tiny bit of his unclothed wrists with the rest hidden by the sleeve of some tight-fitting garment. He was meticulous in his movement, carefully placing his armour on the floor in order. He looked at me sideways, and I realized I’d been staring. I started taking off my armour too, placing it in the Alliance-required order; old habits die hard. When I looked up from the floor again, I saw that Garrus was wearing a very form-fitting black jumpsuit, or the Turian equivalent of one. 

“Yep, this is what you get”, Garrus said, gesturing broadly towards himself. He spread his arms and turned around slightly to show more of his body. His limbs looked slender yet still strong, and no amount of fabric could hide the sharp angles of his body. His hips jutted out sharply, and there was some sort of padding on his elbows and heel-spurs. I couldn’t help but notice that his ass was pretty much completely flat. There seemed to be some sort of hard ridge jutting out from his chest, judging by the folds in the jumpsuit. For a moment I wondered if Garrus had pitched a tent… But that would be impossible, it would be enormous. 

I brushed the thought aside and did a slow turn to show off my own body, in return. Garrus made some sort of low hum, which I hoped was in appreciation. He looked me up and down, and I felt oddly exposed, but there was also something enticing in being looked at like this, the simple curiosity of it. 

Our eyes met for a moment, and I felt like I could look into those blue eyes forever, for in the light of the stars shining through the skylight of my private quarters his eyes looked a brilliant blue instead of grey like they did in the Battery. 

Garrus reached out and gently stroked my cheek with one hand, his rough scaly skin against my stubble. I pulled him towards me in a hug, just wanting to be close to him, my heart beating fast in my chest.

He was almost a head taller than me, my forehead just touching the lower points of his mandibles. I stroked down his back, feeling ridges and edges underneath the fabric of his jumpsuit. He did the same to me, gently caressing my back, tracing down my spine. We stood like that for a while, enjoying the touch and warmth of each other. I breathed in Garrus’s scent, something like cedar wood mixed with something sweet and a hint of ozone. Garrus took in a deep breath of his own and traced the contours of my shoulderblades through my clothes.  
  


“I’m sorry if this is inappropriate for humans, but you smell nice, you know”, Garrus said, still holding me.

“It’s okay, so do you, Garrus.” I had to crane my neck to look up at him to show that I wasn’t offended. Garrus looked at me and smiled that strange quivering Turian smile, and then made a sort of purring noise that sent a shiver down my spine. He bent down and kissed my neck, and the sensation of it made me make some strange half-sigh of pleasure, as well as poking him with my erection.

“Are you okay?” Garrus asked, concern in his voice, moving away from me slightly. 

“Oh no, I'm fine, I'm great, really”, I said, smiling up at him. 

“I felt something poking me, like you wanted me to stop.”

“Oh, that… No, it's a sign that I liked what you did. A lot.” And here came the blush again. Shepard the military veteran, blushing like a teenager. Excellent. 

“I'm glad you liked it, because so did I”, Garrus said, and pulled me closer again, stroking down my back and moving his hands down my spine, towards the small of my back. I did the same, stroking Garrus’s back, feeling the domed hump behind his neck, near his shoulders when—  
  


“It moved! I’m sorry, Garrus, are you okay? Did I hurt you?”   
  


“Oh, Shepard”, the Turian answered, chuckling slightly. “That’s just what we call a cloak. Every Turian has one. It used to be important way back in our evolution, but now it’s pretty much useless. A sign of our history as a species, I suppose. It can move a little and no, you definitely didn’t break it, don’t worry.” Garrus then did something, and I could see the hump, or rather cloak, moving slightly underneath his clothes. “See? Nothing to worry about, I’m tougher than that. You should know that by now, you know, we’ve been through a lot together.”

I breathed out a sigh of relief and hugged Garrus even tighter, remembering the times he’d been my guardian angel and sniping at some enemy I hadn’t seen yet. 

“You know, I hadn’t actually thought about what the cloak was, I’ve just seen it in armour and so on. I thought maybe it was for storing water, like the Krogans and their humps, or something. And you know that I know pretty well you’re not made of glass, right? I mean, I saw you take a rocket to the face four months ago, and you came out of it more handsome.” I looked up at him and smiled. 

“Yeah, well, it’s like they say: the hardest part about operating on a Turian who took a rocket to the face is to figure out which side of the face got hit.” Again that laughter, the sound vibrating through his chest.

“So, Garrus, how do you get out of those clothes?” It was a shot in the dark but sometimes you just have to go for it and hope for the best. The tactic had worked pretty well so far since he’d responded to my invitation to my quarters at least.

“Mm, I can show you”, he said, his voice low and tinged with that purr again. He took my hand in his. “There’s a clasp _here,_ and if you move it like _this…”_ With his help, I undressed him, removing that last layer covering him. 

Without the jumpsuit covering it up, I could definitely see why it was called a cloak; the arching protrusion covering the back of his neck looked a bit like some sort of strange collar. It was warm to the touch, like all of Garrus’s skin, and felt as though it was made out of hard cartilage, slightly springy and with sinews or muscle supporting it underneath. Garrus noticed I was touching it and made it move up and down again, a slight motion a little bit like taking on and off a hood, or the protective screen of a baby stroller. 

I let my hands wander towards his neck, where the scales were small and smooth, and he made a noise somewhat like a sigh when I stroked the upper parts of his mandibles and then moved down to touch the stringy muscles supporting his neck. I touched his broad shoulders, felt the plates of his exoskeleton covering both the joints and the powerful muscles, and moved down his arms, quietly marvelling at the strange and wonderful feeling of this very alien being so close to me. I took his hands in mine and held them. Garrus sat down on the bed, still holding my hands, and looked at me. 

“Now, why don’t you show me how to take off yours…?” His voice was filled with warmth, and he smiled broadly. I showed him just as he had shown me, and soon my jumpsuit was on the floor. Garrus let his gaze travel up and down my body, making that humming noise again.

“Shepard, I just have to ask…” He pointed towards the very obvious sign that I was enjoying the moment, now visible in all its glory, uncovered by cloth. “You humans have external genitals, right? That’s what that is, and not something else?” It was pretty hard to keep my composure and not laugh. Stupid, I know, but sometimes you just can’t stop yourself or how you react.

“Yes, we do, and yes, that is, in fact, my penis. Currently erect, which means I’m, well… I’m enjoying this a lot.” Don’t blush, don’t blush…

“Oh, so that’s what you poked me with! Interesting.” Garrus looked at me with sheer joy, curiosity sated. “Mind if I… touch it?” I only nodded in response, and Garrus stroked along the length of me with one finger, careful not to scratch me with his claw.

“I don’t know how Turians like it, but humans tend to do these things lying down, on the bed.” With that, I gently pushed down on Garrus’s shoulders, and he followed along, falling backwards onto the pillows. 

I was now straddling him, somewhat awkwardly due to the sharp angles in his hips. I could see the exoskeleton plates on his chest moving slightly with every breath he took. I stroked the upper part of his mandible, where a cheek would be on a human, with one hand while moving the other down, past his hips and between his legs, finding… nothing. Just more of the scales and plates that covered his skin. 

“Shepard, what are you…?” 

“Nothing”, I replied, moving my hand up again to feel the curvature of his hips. I decided to try something else and placed a kiss just below his nasal vents, above where his upper lip would have been if he’d had one. He made a sort of chirping sound.

“Garrus, are you okay? Did I hurt you?”  
  


“Oh, no, I just liked that. Your mouth is so soft. It feels… different, but in a good way.”

I moved down to his neck, kissing along the sinews and muscles connecting the skull with the shoulder. He purred, deeper this time, the vibrations rumbling through his chest. I kept kissing his neck, trying to cover all of it with kisses, every scale and every plate, and Garrus continued purring, his breathing heavy, his hands running down my back.

“I _really_ like that”, he said, his voice low and husky. I smiled and continued, getting a few very light nibbles in with my kisses. 

Time to try something again. I moved my head down, towards his chest, and lightly kissed and stroked the darker, heightened scales that looked like nipples. There were three on each side of his chest, and Garrus let out a sound that was something between a growl and a moan when I touched them. 

“Is that good, want me to continue?” I asked, just to be sure, I could read human signs of pleasure fairly well but obviously not Turians.

“Yes, please continue, _please_ don’t stop…” Garrus said, his voice sounding breathless. Clearly I’d found a sensitive spot here.

I kept at it, very gently kissing and softly caressing the dark scales, and they seemed to grow larger and darker as I did so. Garrus was now grabbing onto my buttocks and made some very delicious noises, so I kept going. Then it happened. 

The scales or plates or whatever they were seemed to split in two, and something long and blue snaked out, looking a little like a tentacle and a little like a sea anemone. I jerked my face back, wondering just how badly I’d broken Garrus.

“Garrus! A-are you okay, did I hurt you? I’m so sorry!” 

“Don’t worry about it”, he said and sounded like he was about to laugh, “you humans have external genitals and we have internal ones. That’s the sign that I’m liking this, a lot. Poke.”

The stupid blush crept up my face and I was sure I was bright red now. Great job there, definitely not making yourself look like an idiot at all. 

“Uh… Can I touch them?” I motioned towards the tentacles or whatever they were, three on each side of his chest, just like how the nipple-scales had been arranged. They were light blue and seemed to almost glow, and they moved slowly as though underwater. Each was about twice the length of a finger, and maybe half an inch thick. 

“Yes, please do”, Garrus said, his voice breathless again and more purr than words.

I started to very softly and carefully stroke one of his tentacles, and discovered that it was warm and soft to the touch and dry; for some reason I’d assumed they would be wet and associated them with the ocean. As I touched it, the tentacle began wrapping itself around my finger, slithering slowly this way and that. Garrus made that sound again that was between a growl and a moan again, and his claws dug in slightly, the slight pain suddenly pleasurable to me.

“Oh… Shepard, _please_ don’t stop…”

I let my other fingers become entwined with Garrus’s tentacles, moving them around carefully, trying to match the movement of the tentacles. I tried to utilize my opposable thumbs and stroked gently over the tips of the tentacles, using my pinkies to stroke at the base of them. It was pretty tricky to try to coordinate all this, a bit like playing the world’s most complex string instrument, but Garrus’s noises were all the encouragement I needed. 

He was beautiful like this, eyes half closed in pleasure. I wasn’t sure if it was the light or something else, but the exoskeleton plates seemed to shimmer. I wanted to stroke his cheek or something, but both my hands were busy stroking something quite different. Realising that though I’d been very focused on giving Garrus pleasure, I had neglected my own, I started grinding against Garrus, desperate to feel something. 

I felt something, all right. Some of the exoskeleton plates were a bit sharp. I must have jerked a bit, because Garrus made a vaguely pained noise and asked me if I was all right.

“I’m fine, I guess, it’s just that parts of you are pretty… sharp.”

“I’m sorry, want me to use my hands instead? You seemed to like it the first time around…”

I let out a small moan as his left hand moved down and grasped my cock, stroking it carefully and slowly from root to tip, bucking my hips instinctively.

“Is that good?” Garrus asked.

“Mmm, yes, just a little looser and— yes, that’s very good, keep going…”

The scales on his hands were rougher than a human’s hands, and with just the right grip the friction felt comfortable rather than painful. Garrus still let his right hand trail up and down my back, occasionally scratching me lightly with his claws, a sharp and strangely pleasurable sensation.

I decided to try something new again, bent my head down and touched one of the tentacles with just the tip of my tongue. Garrus made a decidedly inhuman noise and then begged me to do it again. He was dextro and I was lanto, so I shouldn’t swallow his saliva or anything, but since the tentacles felt dry this should be fine. 

I licked at the tip of one of his tentacles, and he seemed to shudder and moaned so I could feel the sound vibrating through his chest. Clearly I was doing something right. I slowly licked the tentacle from base to tip, and Garrus’s chest heaved as he made a sound that was both a growl, a purr and something high-pitched on the edge of my hearing. His chest seemed almost pearlescent now, shimmering oddly in the light. I licked at a different tentacle this time, almost sucking it into my mouth very carefully, when Garrus suddenly twitched and made a shrill noise.

“What happened?” Did I break him for real this time?

“Mouth, teeth, sharp”, he muttered underneath his breath. 

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean it, are you okay?”

“Yeah, I’m fine, just… Try not to do that again, okay? You’re dealing with very sensitive equipment here.”

“Understood.” I made sure to only use my tongue on his tentacles and let out a moan of pleasure when Garrus’s stroking me hit just the right rhythm and he squeezed my ass with his other hand, claws digging in slightly in a way that hurt so good.

“Garrus”, I gasped, “please do that again, the claws, it’s good…”

“You mean like this?” He purred and scratched with all three claws of his right hand up along my spine, making me moan softly and buck my hips in response.

“Y-yes, just like that”, I managed to say. 

While Garrus continued stroking my cock, his fingers now slick with my precum, I concentrated on his tentacles. I moved my fingers so they would caress the tentacles while they were wrapped around my fingers, and licked first at the tips of the tentacles and then moved down towards the base. Garrus ran his claws down my back and I couldn't help but moan against the tentacle I was licking, it felt so good. His chest heaved and he let out a growl tinged with a high-pitched noise. 

“That's _so_ good, mmm…” His voice was half-purr and filled with pleasure. It sent a tingle down my spine. 

I decided to try something different, and finished licking his tentacles, moving my head up to his neck. I kissed and nibbled his neck, and he moaned with pleasure, his chest heaving again as I kept stroking his tentacles with both hands. 

Garrus kept running his hand up and down my back, squeezed my buttocks and then let his hand wander a bit more, running one finger around my tight ass. I moaned loudly as he teased my hole with just one finger, the other hand still stroking my cock, my hips bucking involuntarily. 

As I kept kissing and nibbling his neck, Garrus kissed mine, his kisses feeling more like nibbles. He found a perfect spot and did something that felt like a bite, and the pain turned into pleasure, making me moan as he ran his claws down my back. I could feel a wave of pleasure building up in me and my hips bucked, it hurt so good when he did that, I moaned his name as I came, shooting jets of white cum over the pearlescent plates on his stomach. 

Still feeling the afterwaves of pleasure running through me, I moved down to kiss and lick at Garrus’s chest tentacles, trying to give each of the six equal attention. His claws ran up and down my back, one hand grabbing onto my ass, and his chest heaved as though he was taking deep breaths. 

“Please, please, don't stop, so good”, he half-moaned, half-purred, his voice breathless. I obeyed and kept on kissing and licking those sinuous tentacles, stroking the ones I couldn't lick, alternating between long, slow licks with my tongue broad and flat and pointed licks on sensitive areas with just the tip of my tongue.

“Careful, s-so close, fluids”, Garrus gasped, so I stopped my licking and kept at stroking his tentacles, slickened with my saliva. Good call, none of us wanted to find out exactly what would happen if a human swallowed Turian… fluids. I wondered what it would be like, if it would look similar to my own cum.

Garrus let out a strange noise, a deep vibrating purr with strange high overtones that made the hairs on the back on my neck stand up, and he moved his chest and abdomen in a strange rolling motion. I could feel the vibrations of the sound in my chest. The tentacles writhed and shivered around my fingers, and then went limp and still.

“Oh spirits, that was so good”, he said, letting out a long sigh of pleasure. 

“It was… it was great, you were great”, I managed to say. My knees felt a bit wobbly and my balls ached slightly from the sheer strength of my orgasm. I moved slightly to lie in a more comfortable position instead of straddling him, and he held me with one arm. 

I watched as his tentacles seemed to shrink and slide back into where they had come from, and the scales moved closed again so they appeared just like strange nipples. 

“I better, um, I better go and clean you up, Garrus”, I said, feeling awkward about having shot all over his stomach like that. 

“Just leave it for now”, he said, and smiled. “It can wait. Everything can wait. Let's just have… this, us, together.”

I breathed in Garrus’s scent, nuzzling into him. He made a low, humming noise. We held each other and fell asleep like that, sated and tired and very happy. 


End file.
